This review contains minor spoilers, nothing unpredictable or what you haven’t already seen on booktok.

Thank you to Neela for not only rec'ing this book, but for all the funny ass texts about this book that hopefully never get out. HD Carlton does a wonderful job bringing up all the reasons why it’s wrong and blah blah but she’s also very good at getting us to ask ourself why we think it’s wrong. The sense of danger that permeates their relationship is heightened by the forbidden passion charged into Adeline's intimate moments with her stalker. When you make someone fall in love with the darkest parts of you, there’s nothing you can do that will scare them away. Pedophelia is one of the worst crimes out there but… The books idea about how pedofile rings work are just weird and wrong in so many ways.

And then when I did, I immediately wrote it off, convinced no one would possibly want to read about a woman falling in love with her stalker. I've already established that it was rapey (it's in the TWs but it doesn't really make it any better imo). Just, be sure you're not getting in to something you'll feel bad about, some of this stuff is pretty gnarly.

The vigilante stuff was pretty fun, though it would have been better if the hero’s reason for risking his life wasn’t just ‘cause I like to kill bad people’. As a vigilante that has an entire organisation devoted to save victims of trafficking and sexual abuse as well as destroying the ones responsible and taking part in the trade. I don't careee if it's just a joke or whatever, pick something else to joke about or find another way to show your appreciation for your friend, but stop treating sapphic relationships like jokes.She begged him to stop, talked about how it hurt, and he left her crying in a ball after he fucked her. I don’t want to talk to much about it, because I’m incapable of telling stories without spoiling things, but I can tell you it was interesting and I was invested! Obviously, loving Adeline and Zade was like accepting the dark side of my own mind so gotta say this book is like a personal read for me and is gonna stay on top for forever! Zade is one of the most unhinged, obsessive book stalkers but his heart is largely in the right place. A lot of darker themes are tackled here and as a reader you need to be smart about knowing what you're walking into.